Conventional medical scanners, such as ultrasound scanning systems, provide two- or three-dimensional images of tissues without subjecting patients to ionizing radiation. These conventional scanners typically comprise a control system, a user interface (e.g., a keyboard, control panel, trackball, and the like), several probes (e.g., transducers or scanheads), a video display, a recording device, and a power system. Generally, ultrasound refers to sound waves emitted at frequencies above the range of human hearing. For diagnostic imaging, frequencies ranging from 2 to 15 megahertz are typically used.
To obtain desired scanned images of different portions of the human body, or other object of interest, it is necessary to use different probes that have different penetration characteristics and different shapes. Full-sized ultrasound scanning systems (desk mounted or cart mounted) generally are provided with a number of sockets for receiving cable connectors for different ultrasound probes that may be used for scanning different portions of a human body or other objects of interest. The probes provided for full-sized systems are provided with a large number, such as 128 or 256, of transducer elements to provide a high resolution scan image. Generally, each transducer element is connected by a separate channel or wire to the ultrasound electronics for conversion into the display image. Thus, the cables connecting the probes to the ultrasound electronics housing typically contain hundreds of shielded wires for the transducer element signals, as well as wires for electrical power and control of the transducer elements.
There have been developed and commercialized smaller, more portable scanning systems, such as having the size of lap top computers (portable) or even hand-held tablets (ultraportable), however these portable units have suffered from some drawbacks. Although these units allow the ultrasound scanning of a patient to occur in locations that are not dedicated for ultrasound scanning, including at the hospital bedside or other locations, most of these portable systems operate on battery power carried in the portable or hand-held unit, allowing for limited power available for the scanner probes, and leading to a reduced number of transducer elements in the probes. This reduced number of transducer elements results in a reduced resolution of the image typically displayed on the small screen of the portable unit.
One approach that has been provided has been to dedicate a particular probe with the ultrasound scanner control module with a fixed connection, however, this limits the use of the ultrasound scanning system to one particular type of scanning, and requires other scanning systems to perform other types of scanning.
Further, if medical personnel wish to be able to perform many different types of scans with portable scanning systems, they are required to carry a number of different probes with them, with each probe having a probe cable connected thereto, the probe cables each having a length of at least a meter (39 inches) or more. This results in a very bulky collection of equipment necessary to be able to conduct several different types of ultrasound scans.
Another disadvantage is that some conventional scanning systems use complex multiple coaxial cables having 128-256 composite interconnection elements for delivering electrical signals from the corresponding transducer probes. The connectors for connecting the coaxial cables to the conventional scanning systems are rather large and often cannot be accommodated in the smaller hand-held units.
To overcome this problem, some available units place some of the ultrasound electronics in the probe, including a beam former, however, this results in other problems, such as a larger and heavier probe, high heat in the probe due to the electronics, and more expensive probes with electronics located in each probe.
The power supply required for operating large probes (with 128 to 256 transducer elements) is also typically comparatively large, which requires a larger amount of electrical power to be supplied to the probe.
Therefore, there is a need for developing an improved portable medical scanning system having a probe that is efficiently and readily interchangeable during the diagnostic imaging process, is relatively small, lightweight and reasonably priced, and allows for a high quality scanned image.